This copy is for your personal non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies of Toronto Star content for distribution to colleagues, clients or customers, or inquire about permissions/licensing, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com

How beloved secondary characters helped make ‘Game of Thrones’ a cultural force

Whether it’s Brienne of Tarth or Samwell Tarly, secondary characters in “GoT” give us space from the show’s core cast. They’re fully realized, complex people whose presence enriches the series and helps cement its place as one of the best dramas in TV history.

By Adam ProteauSpecial to the Star

Wed., July 12, 2017

Spoiler alert: This story contains spoilers for Game of Thrones.

When HBO’s Game of Thrones returns Sunday for its penultimate season, a great deal of viewer attention will focus on the hit show’s main characters.

They include Jon Snow and his Stark relatives Sansa, Bran and Arya; the surviving Lannister clan, twin brother and sister Jaime and Cersei, and their outcast brother Tyrion; and dragon queen Daenerys Targaryen.

But one of the reasons the series has become a cultural force is the depth of talent beyond the core cast.

Over GoT’s first six seasons, showrunners D.B. Weiss and David Benioff have painstakingly woven together a series of primary stories, but part of the audience’s intense and emotional attachment comes from the characters and staggeringly skilled actors who comprise the supporting ensemble.

Article Continued Below

Indeed, it’s a measure of the series’ success at making us care about virtually everyone in it that, in the most recent season, one episode began with - spoiler alert - the stirring return of Sandor “The Hound” Clegane (Rory McCann), a fan favourite who many believed was killed off at the end of Season 4.

Sandor “The Hound” Clegane (Rory McCann) is one example of a secondary character on “Game of Thrones” who’s been embraced by fans as if he were a main character. (HELEN SLOAN / HBO)

McCann didn’t appear in Season 5 or most of Season 6, and he rarely got a long stretch of screen time in any given episode. Yet his gruff but endearing performance resonated so deeply that his surprise reappearance was featured before GoT’s opening credits – a rarity usually reserved for the most crucial developments and protagonists.

The Hound isn’t alone as a secondary character who’s been embraced by fans as if he were a main player.

Each has had their background explored just enough that you could easily see them as the centrepiece of their own GoT spinoff. More importantly, each works in service of the show’s bigger picture, not only in terms of their relationships with the main characters but in arcs that Weiss and Benioff couldn’t otherwise explore.

Samwell is an excellent example of this. After overcoming a natural avoidance of physical confrontation to kill both a feared White Walker and a loathsome Thenn warrior, Sam enters Season 7 studying at the Citadel, a massive library of sorts where GoT’s wise men, known as maesters, learn everything from the history of the Seven Kingdoms to healing and warcraft.

Samwell Tarly (John Bradley-West) enters the new season studying at a library where GoT’s wise men learn everything from the history of the Seven Kingdoms to healing and warcraft. (HELEN SLOAN / HBO)

A maester represents the value of science, literary wisdom and the power of the mind and, at some point in the series’ final two seasons, it’s likely Samwell’s training will help Jon Snow & Co. in great battles to come.

Then there’s Brienne, a strong woman warrior who has been shunned most of her life for a perceived lack of femininity. To her dismay, she failed early on in her role as a protector of GoT royalty (including late King Renly Baratheon and Catelyn Stark) and has had other characters question her allegiances.

In Season 7, she’s firmly entrenched as the de facto bodyguard of Sansa and confidante of Jaime Lannister (an enemy of the Starks). Brienne’s place in GoT is continuously evolving and nuanced. In a series that’s established that any character could die at any moment, the fact that Brienne would be mourned if she perished is a tribute to the writers, producers and Christie’s performance.

These secondary characters give us breathing space from the Starks, Lannisters and Targaryens, but they’re also fully realized, complex people whose presence – limited as it may be – deeply enriches the series and helps cement its place as one of the best dramas in TV history.

Delivered dailyThe Morning Headlines Newsletter

The Toronto Star and thestar.com, each property of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, One Yonge Street, 4th Floor, Toronto, ON, M5E 1E6. You can unsubscribe at any time. Please contact us or see our privacy policy for more information.

More from the Toronto Star & Partners

LOADING

Copyright owned or licensed by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or distribution of this content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited and/or its licensors. To order copies of Toronto Star articles, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com